A very mixed bag this EuroTrash Monday: We open with the Superprestige cyclo-cross in Belgium, jump to PEZ in Taiwan, more cross news from Italy, plus Tour and Vuelta news and all the other bits to get you through a Monday morning. “Top Story” is a bit scary if you’ve been at the EPO and we finish with a heart warming tale involving Mark Cavendish. A nice tall coffee today.

TOP STORY: It Would Worry Me!
If you were/are a professional rider and been taking EPO at some point in your career what would you think of a recent statement from Dr. Cristóbal Belda-Inesta that “tumour cells feed off EPO.” Dr. Belda-Inesta is head of thoracic oncology and neuro-oncology at HM Hospitals in Madrid and a professor at the University of San Pablo, so when it comes to cancer research he knows what he is talking about. The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on a conference in Madrid that was discussing new elements in the detection of doping in sport, where Dr. Belda-Inesta was speaking on the subject of the effect of drugs like EPO, HGH and IGF-1 has on cells and in particular cancer cells. What he said was that EPO will boost the size of a tumour cell, normally over five days a tumour cell culture will double, but with a small amount of EPO the cell will multiply by 1,800 times.

Dr. Belda-Inesta points out that; “It can be affirmed that doping substances like these are substances that can be used experimentally in a laboratory to produce cancers and cardiovascular illnesses. They are substances that help to create cancer.” He added “but the scientific basis for this is simple: each cell needed millions of years to evolve and reach a perfect state. When we modify it in an accelerated way with one of these substances we modify all of them, because they are all connected. For this reason, I want to fight against doping because it is a health issue.”

According to all the riders who have been caught or have admitted to the use of EPO and HGH recently, their defence has been that everyone was doing it, in that case we are going to see a lot of cancer cases in ex-riders in the future. The story reminds me of a pro rider from the early 80’s who said he was surprised that when his first child was born it didn’t have two heads or something, due to all the kit he took. If the cells have changed due to drug use, could that also be passed on to the riders offspring?

Superprestige Hamme-Zogge 2013
Niels Albert (BKCP-Powerplus) won in the mud of Hamme-Zogge from World champion Sven Nys (Crelan-Euphony) and German champion Philipp Walsleben (BKCP-Powerplus) snatched third from under the nose of the Belgian champ Klaas Vantornout (Sunweb-Napoleon) who had a late mechanical problem and dropped to 6th place.

After an early crash, Albert put the pressure on at the halfway mark and decimated the field with only Nys and Vantornout able to stay with him. After the next lap it was Albert on his own and that’s how he finished the race. Vantornout and Nys had battling it out until the World champion ran into Vantournout wrecking his rear wheel and leaving him to run for a spare bike and losing his position. Nys leads the Superprestige ahead of Albert and Vantornout.

British national champion Nikki Harris (Telenet- Fidea) took a solo win in Hamme-Zogge. In the early laps Harris was away with her team mate Sophie de Boer to be joined by the Belgian champion Sanne Cant (Enertherm-BKCP) about half way through the race. This was the point that Harris decided to attack and kept the chasers at bay to the finish. Cant and De Boer fought it out for second, but in the end it came down to a sprint where Cant threw her bike over the line first. The rest of the race was 2 minutes down on Harris.

After the race Harris commented via Twitter (@Nikkiharris86) “After a really heavy week of training in the derbyshire hills I’m happy and surprised with my second win of the season in Hamme Zogge”

Our Man in Taiwan
Our intrepid reporter Gordan Cameron took on the Tour of Taiwan last week and sent us back some unique road side “PEZ On The Scene” coverage from Asia. If you’ve missed them (why?) here they are. If you understand Scottish Gaelic there is more on the BBC Radio Nan Gàidheal.

Cyclocross: Italy Presents The “Giro D’italia Cx” That Is Starting This Race SeasonWritten by Ilenia Lazzaro.
The Italian Cyclocross race season has started during the first week of October with some events in the area of Triveneto (northern part of Italy) with the 34° Trofeo Triveneto Cyclocross (www.trevisomtb.it). The protagonists of these races are the athlete Thomas Paccagnella (Sportivi Del Ponte) winning the first stage of Buja (UD) and the 5th stage in Bolzano, Elia Silvestri (Selle Italia Guerciotti) winner of the stage of Mareno di Piave (TV), the Italian MTB XC Champion Mirco Tabacchi (Forestale) winning the stage of VillaLagarina (TN) and Marco Ponta (Scott) winning the stage of Vò (PD). It is important to underline the three victories of the èlite athlete Nicoletta Bresciani (Scott) and the victory of one stage for the junior athlete Chiara Teaocchi (TXT Bianchi) and the junior athlete Giulia Dal Pozzo (Trentino Rosa) who also won another stage of the event.

Waiting for the battle between the Italian champion Marco Aurelio Fontana (Cannondale) and Enrico Franzoi (Selle Italia Guerciotti), the first stage has been won by the Italian-Swiss rider Byan Falaschi (Selle Italia Guerciotti) among the open and Elena Valentini (Selle Italia Guerciotti) among the women. NEXT STAGE- Next stage of Giro d’Italia CX will be held this week-end in the beautiful landscape of Petrignano, in the center of Italy near Assisi. A city rich in artistic, cultural and religious traditions. More information here.

This is the Video Presentation of the GIRO D’ITALIA CX:

The first international stage in Italy will be held in Faè di Oderzo (TV) the 8th of December and will be organized by GS Sportivi Del Ponte. For more information: www.sportividelponte.it/.

For those who understand some Italian, there is also a TV program which follows every week the cyclocross season. It is called Scratch Tv, on Canale Italia 159, every Thursday at 8 p.m. Here you can find the gallery of the program:http://www.scratchtv.it/video-gallery-2013-2/

Quintana for Giro, Valverde for Tour
The Movistar team has announced that Nairo Quintana will be the team leader in the Giro d’Italia and Alejandro Valverde will be the main man for the Spanish telephone team in the Tour de France. Movistar team manager, Eusebio Unzué has said that this is the initial plan but a final decision will be made in December. The nine summit finishes in the Italian race will obviously suit the little Colombian climber, although he would like to ride the Tour he knows he has many years ahead of him. Quintana said after the presentation of the 2014 Giro: “The Giro has always attracted me and I’ve always preferred the Tour because there are more mountains, I think it is a course that suits me, I really like this course because at first glance as it suits my pure climber features. During the first week, you have to be careful not to fall into any traps. The third week, though, I know Italian mountains, it seems harsh. Really the only stage that is a problem is the time trial for me, because it is very long”. The 2014 Tour de France is also very mountainous, but the cobbles and the 54 kilometre time trial should suit Valverde. Unzué added that both riders will share the lead in the Vuelta a España.

Nairo Quintana at the 2013 Tour de France:

No More Tramadol for MPCC Teams
The Movement for Credible Cycling has announced that the teams who are members will no longer use the pain killing drug tramadol during competition. MPCC doctors representative; Gérard Guillaume has said that the drug is dangerous in competition and in a statement they said “Tramadol causes drowsiness and conditions that could lead to falls in a race. Doctors of teams that are members of MPCC are committed to no longer use tramadol in competition.” MPCC also want the drug to be added to WADA’s list of banned substances, at the moment it is on WADA’s monitored list. In a Press Release MPCC said: “The battle for tramadol to be registered in the list of prohibited substances by the World Anti-Doping Agency follows the same logic.”

Utrecht Start for the 2015 Tour de France
The French Grand Tour has announced that the Dutch town of Utrecht will host the Grand Depart in 2015. In a short Press Release the organisers, ASO, said: “Back in 1954, Amsterdam set the scene for the Tour de France’s first start abroad. Scheveningen (1973), Leiden (1978), ‘s-Hertogenbosch (1996) and, most recently, Rotterdam (2010) have since lived the Tour experience too. The upcoming 2015 edition will be the sixth time the peloton sets off from the Netherlands.” A full press conference will be held in Paris and Utrecht on November the 28th with more information.

2014 Vuelta a España Route:
Some of next year’s Spanish Grand Tour has been leaked by our favourite Spanish sports paper AS this week. After the successes of previous Vuelta’s, with lots of summit finishes, the 2014 edition looks like it will be following a similar plan. We already know that the race will start in Cádiz on the 23rd of August and finish with a time trial in Santiago de Compostela on September the 14th. AS report that the proposed mountain passes will be the Lagos de Covadonga, La Farrapona, the Ancares Pass and the new climb of La Camperona. When the race hits La Ancares Pass it will be over the tougher side, up the Pan do Zarco at 12 kilometres long and the new ascent of La Camperona climbs 9.8 kilometres with ramps of up to 22%. The full presentation will be on January the 11th in Cádiz.

The Lagos de Cavadonga in the 1985 Vuelta a España, look out for Scotland’s Robert Millar:

New Team: Yellow Fluo
You might have noticed in the list of 2014 UCI ProContinental teams we published on Thursday, an Italian team called Yellow Fluo. The team is the remainder of the failed Vini Fantini-Selle Italia that came to grief after the positive drug tests of Danilo Di Luca and Mauro Santambrogio during the Giro d’Italia. Team manager Angelo Citracca and DS Luca Scinto have put together some smaller sponsors with the hope of landing a bigger backer at a later date. The team will be riding Cipollini bikes on Usus wheels with previous sponsors Selle Italia and Neri Sottoli staying on. As to a possible repeat of the drug problems, the team stated: “We’ll begin a process of public openness concerning the huge work done by the team management to supervise and control the riders. There will be new internal rules and openness that has never been done before.”

Mobilizing People
Imagine racing the sun just to get by. People across rural Africa face this challenge every day. Without adequate transportation, access to vital resources such as healthcare, education and economic opportunity is often out of reach.

When you donate to World Bicycle Relief, you mobilize entrepreneurs, healthcare workers and students as they fight to feed their families, build their businesses, treat the sick, finish school, follow their dreams and change their world.

Help us spread the word about our exciting new campaign, “Mobilize Me” and your efforts will go twice as far. Donations through December 31 will be matched $ for $! Thanks for your continued support!

Cav: The Hero
If you can’t watch British TV you probably missed this pearl of a story about a stroke victim who wouldn’t give up and is now planning to ride across the US for charity. His hero is Mark Cavendish, but I think once you watch this it’s Paul that is the hero.

The PEZ NEWSWIRE!
Don’t forget to check the “NEWSWIRE” section, you can find it down the right hand side on the home page, just above the EuroTrash section. The bits of news that missed the EuroTrash deadline are in there, plus any news as-it-happens will be added there too.